Brief
- Develop a character in response to a given piece of music.
- Create a series of three looping animated GIFs of your character.
- Digital, hand-drawn and 3D/Lens based.
- Consider what you want to say about the song you have been given.
- Use sketchbook to explore, develop and interrogate at least 5 different character ideas.
- Consider the form, action, expression and materials.
- Produce roughs and storyboards to fill sketchbook with experiments.
- 500x500 pixels.
My Song: Revolution 909 - Daft Punk
Initial Thoughts
- Character design is one of my strong points as I love developing rough ideas and have a strong imagination when it comes to making a character up.
- Maybe it will be slightly harder to create a character for this one though because I have to do it based on a song I've never heard before.
- Is the song I have chosen interesting enough?
- I don't like the other 2 songs.
- WHERE THE HELL DO I EVEN START.
- Will I be able to finish at least 1 whole sketchbook in a week?
- Of course I will.
Roughs
As we all know Daft Punk create electronic music. As well as their iconic helmets that they are barely seen without. This could be massive inspiration for my character.
I've listened to the song so many times and all I can think about is robots and how they have jittered motions.
I began by developing a robot like character.
The body doesn't seem to suit the head of the design meaning I need to continue and experiment with different ways that either of these elements should look.
The us of minimalistic straight lines stand out to me the most on the arms and legs of the character.
However, the facial features of the character are not appealing to me at all. I prefer the guy to the right because of his wonky face.
But would a wonky looking character suit the song which is very much angular and technology based.
This may be a challenge for me as my drawings tend to be a bit childlike and out of place.
I have managed to improve the face massively by making the head seem almost like a 90's television (perfect for the song as Daft Punk were most well known then).
I am going to continue working on the characters face and look further into expressions.
The hands are stressing me out.
Are they even a needed element to the character?
I am going to continue further developing the character as a whole (especially the hands and body) until I completely crack the design.
The character looks visually stronger without his hands which I have now discovered are not essential.
This his improved massively. The simplicity of the ligaments has worked surprisingly well as the slight bend of each element puts the character in a different pose.
Keeping the piece as geometric as possible suits the song will with the repetitiveness and robot sounds that can be heard throughout.
I don't think the GIF will need to be too complex as the song repeats the same beats throughout. Although, I may change my mind when I begin to make the GIF.
I want to keep my colours as minimal as possibly for the character itself as I intend on creating a strong patterned background.
The pink/yellow/orange tones work the best with me aesthetically because the facial features of the character are a lot more clear whereas the green design seems to be a bit dull with unclear facial features.
If I were to choose this character for my final GIF designs I would consider the movement of the arms and legs as they stick out against the rest of the character.
Although, as I continue developing new characters my ideas should get stronger so I may have to come back to this one which is my weakest so far.
I began this character with a much more minimal approach trying to stick with the most basic shapes possible.
It's kind of a joke on a hench man's figure which makes me even more interested in developing this character further.
Do hench men listen to Daft Punk?
The use of simple shapes to create a character seems to make the designing process a lot more complicated because I need to take a lot more consideration into making it look human.
This is not usually a task for me.
I plan on adding more features to these basic shapes to emphasise further on the 'hench man' look.
Does this guy go to the gym?
Changed my mind on the hench thing. He's got more of an embarrassing dad look.
The use of the character having no mouth almost as if his jumper is pulled up too high appeals to me as it makes the visual element of the design look stronger because of his dad dancing style he's got going on.
What does this guy look like sideways?
Which way will his nose go?
Should his nose be a small circle from the front and a long point from the side?
I thought his nose might look a bit weird with just two small circles possibly confusing the viewer.
The legs at the bottom right corner of this page are the strongest of the bunch. I like the use of overlapping making the character seem slightly more three dimensional.
However, on that particular drawing the top half of the body seems to look a bit flat. Especially with the overlapping legs.
Should the body look so triangular when the character is facing sideways or more rectangular so it sits on the legs properly?
I am going to continue drawing him and focus on the body as well as the feet/shoes which I haven't yet put much thought into.
The upper body fits onto the legs a lot better with a more rectangular shaped body.
Although, the shoes still need a lot more development.
What shoes do embarrassing dancing dads wear?
Is he trying to be cool?
I'm also focusing a lot more on the nose of the character when I think about the movement of the GIF.
Should it wiggle or curl?
I loved drawing the shoes so much. Telling myself to repetitively draw them has allowed me to develop them so much.
As I drew them I began to think more and more about the three dimensional elements of them and how they would fit on the foot of the character.
Could they develop even further by possibly elongating elements or making more complex laces?
I am overall happy with the shoes I have drawn so far for this character.
However, I want to simplify the character as a whole to one solid colour making it almost like a silhouette.
Simplifying the character has improved the design a lot meaning I can focus more on creating a more intricate background.
Should I fill the character with colour or just simply make the character an outline?
If I were to do this then the colours would have to be completely contrasting of one another.
I am going to continue to develop more characters before deciding on the final design.
I went back to the robot idea again. But a different guy who's a lot more developed.
The face still needs to be worked on to make him more geometric and robot like.
As this is the early stages of development I need to carry on going to improve the character and change different elements to see which is most appealing.
I want the jittering robot style dancing to be clear through the means of the characters movement.
Boom.
Wind up robot.
I love this idea. Adding the key has instantly made the idea a lot stronger and more developed.
Could the key turn as he moves?
How will he move?
I want to use this magical pencil forever.
If I make this character into a GIF I am going to test the magic pencil (actual name) into the hand-drawn final outcome.
The colours it creates are intense (although, you can't tell in the picture). I plan on using it to create the character or possibly the background.
I plan on experimenting further with the magic pencil.
I made a storyboard to visualise my idea for the final GIF.
As I began drawing the frames I thought of the character repeatedly walking into a wall and turning back on itself which is what wind up robots seem to do.
It also relates to the song because of the constant repetition for approximately 5 minutes straight.
Test Digital GIF
Before creating the final digital GIF I made a test to practise with the software.
The tween effect is handy in making the objects move in a smooth fashion through the frames.
Will this be suitable for my final design?
I want more of a jittered approach for the characters dancing to fit with the song.
Digital GIF
I am proud with the outcome of my final GIF. The colours are bold as well the fact I finally worked out how legs move when you're walking.
If I were to create the GIF again I would add more moving elements to it such as the key turning and making the arms move.
I found it impossible to make the arms move in angular motions as it changed every frame when I did it causing me a great deal of stress but the overall outcome visually communicates the repetition of the song.
3D/ Lens GIF
I am happy with the outcome of this GIF as there's a sense of humour within the whole piece. It loops almost perfectly which I considered when making the GIF and chose the last image to be almost the same as the first image in the loop so that the design answered the set brief.
The only unsuccessful part of the GIF is that I could have used a more high quality camera rather than my phone to prevent blurry/ out of focus images.
If I were to make the GIF again I would consider using a better camera and further developing how the character could move throughout the loop.
Handmade GIF
This outcome is the weakest of the three GIFs although I'm still happy with the final outcome. The idea behind the GIF is the strongest element of the whole design. I intended on making the tone of voice seem more tense and stressed than the other two designs as the robot is stuck walking back between two walls.
However, I think this could have been emphasised more by possibly changing the expression on the characters face as he hits the wall. Also the end of the paper is sometimes visible at the top of the design although I think this adds to the hand made approach of the design making it more personal.
If I were to make the GIF again I would add patterns to the background as well as the walls to make it more clear that he is walking into the walls and also make it more three dimensional.
